(This is part of my journey playing through Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. You can follow the entire series on the Nostalgia Lane page.)

Moving right along — it’s chapter two!

Meet Grace, Gabe’s assistant. She’ll be our protagonist for the time being. Grace starts out at the bookshop in New Orleans, where she’s bearing the burden of female customers gushing about how awesome the books are and how in the book, the sexy male lead seduces his Japanese helper. Grace is obviously prickly about this, but when she spies the letter from Gabe (how fast is mail again?) she immediately runs off to Germany. I’m not really sure *why* she does this, unless she’s got this love-hate thing going for Gabe that is simmering in ways I cannot even imagine.

Unlike Gabe, Grace is actually linguistically competent and can speak German. Golly, I sure hope the game provides subtitles for the ensuing wackiness!

Grace hates Gerde. I mean, hates. The actress who plays Grace seems fine so far, but the direction here makes her look like a psycho who is ready to torture an informant. She freaks out when Grede suggests that Gabe might be living here permanently. What, with that frizzy mop-haired German floozy? With all of these romantic rooms and candles and blood sausages? Not on her watch, world. Not on her watch.

Every time — every time — Grace leaves the castle, the game shows the same long sequence of her putting on her trenchcoat while the electronic piano plays. Have I mentioned how strange the music is in this game? It wavers between sad soap opera pieces and kooky comedy tracks. It’s too distracting when it shows up — I wish GK2 didn’t have it at all.

Grace heads down to the village. Because it’s drink o’clock, she plows into a deserted pub and accesses the “manic” half of her bi-polar personality to quiz him about the Schattenjäger and what Gabe might be up to. I like this scene because it shows how the entire town is the Schattenjäger’s support system. Heck, with a castle, talisman, library, and entire village at my back, I might be a good warrior against the forces of darkness too.

The picture on the right there is when Grace discovers that the case is about werewolves. She starts a transformation too, but mostly it’s to bug her eyes out and look like a ghost who comes out of your television to devour your soul.

Properly buzzed, Gracie makes a beeline for a church and its convenient “just off the sanctuary” crypt. These are the tombs of all of the previous Schattenjägers, including Gabe’s uncle. Unfortunately for Grace but fortunately for us, there are no options to defile the dead in search of useful items.